USUALLY SHIPS WITHIN 1 OR 2 BUSINESS DAYS
ONLY 4 LEFT IN STOCK

New album of previously unreleased music recorded 1962 at Auditorium Maximum/ Freie Universität in Berlin. Austrian genius Friedrich Gulda on piano and baritone saxophone, leading a 13-piece, top-shelf lineup of players featuring Benny Bailey, Erich Kleinschuster, Georg Riedel, Fatty George, Arne Domnérus and Ack van Rooyen. Sparkling modern jazz in front of an excited audience, including Parker's "Anthropology", Monk's "Round About Midnight" plus original material by Gulda and Riedel, with world premiere of "Music For Three Soloists And Band". "It is the rhythmic drive, the risk, the absolute contrast to the pale, academic approach I had been taught". (F.Gulda in New York Times).

Today it is well known that Austrian pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda was at home in two different worlds: classical music and jazz. He once mentioned "There are so many great musicians alive, but none of them was able to tear down the border that was created by the music industry, which is the border between classical music and popular music. Jazz is still considered to be something deserving less respect." Gulda was one of the few who tried to cross that border, working in both realms, without regard to how he was perceived by critics and other musicians. The young pianist attempted to conceal his love of jazz. Raised in Vienna, the piano prodigy was only 20 when he played his Carnegie Hall debut. After the concert he went to a jam session at Birdland, New York's legendary jazz club. For him, jazz offered "the rhythmic drive, the risk, the absolute contrast to the pale, academic approach I had been taught." Still, he had to admit "There sure is no guarantee for me to become a great jazz musician, but at least I am serving the right music."

Gulda's fascination with jazz derived from his desire to improvise. "The little freedom every interpreter of classical music has is between zero and ten percent. So they are very limited. Whereas improvised jazz is in the middle, somewhere between ten and eighty percent. The aspect of improvisation for me is standing above all. That doesn't exist in jazz music only. It exists in every good music, but jazz music today is the most important manifestation of improvisation."